Just A Quickie with... Roland Gift, the Fine Young Cannibals singer on the comeback trail in York on Tuesday.
Roland, the last time you were at the Grand Opera House, you were playing Romeo in Hull Truck's production of Romeo And Juliet. Remember it?
"Those were the days. It must have been at least 14 years ago."
This time you're billed as Roland Gift and the Fine Young Cannibals. Will your old musical partners, Andy Cox and David Steele, be with you?
"No, Andy and Dave are not going to be there. I have done some gigs with Andy; he's helped me out from time, and he may be coming to the Birmingham show. But I think it's unlikely we'll get back together again."
You see Andy, but what about Dave?
"I don't really see much of Dave... that's the best way to put it. Bands are a bit like a love affair. Once they are over, they are over, but we travelled. We travelled a long way."
Why are you going out on tour under the name of Roland Gift and the Fine Young Cannibals, and not just as Roland Gift?
"We're doing that because we'll be playing old stuff. Some people know me as Roland Gift but many associate me with the Fine Young Cannibals. If they want to hear those songs, they will get them but they'll also get my new solo songs. So every song is a Roland Gift song."
What prompted you to go out on the road?
"I'm not sure why I'm doing it. A lot of the set will be new material... Maybe it's because Tony Denton is always asking me to do these Here & Now nostalgia shows and that's never been my cup of tea. He called me again a few months ago and again I said 'no, but how about organising a tour for me?', and so he has.
"Now I've put together new material and two thirds of the set will be new."
Who has been working with you on the new songs?
"Ben Barson brother of Madness keyboards player Mike Barson. I met him through the publishing company I used to be with. They set up a meeting for us to write together, which may seem odd, but it works. When you're younger, you work with your mates, and then when you're older you don't do things in the same way."
When will you release new material?
"A double A-side, Been Around The World and Oh Carol (a new song, not a cover version), will be out at the end of the month. It's going to come out on my own label, and I'm just applying for a name for the label at the moment.
We've been recording it all over the place, but I've used a studio called Mayfair a lot. It's in Primrose Hill, not Mayfair, and it's just a cycle ride from where I live."
When will the album follow?
"Depending on how well the single does... or it may not depend on that! Making the record is easy; distributing it is the problem but we do have a distributor for this record: Cadiz, based in London."
You opened the tour in your one-time home city of Hull earlier this week. How did it go and what do you want from this tour?
"Great. It went really well. When you do a tour like this you start playing well and you develop telepathy. That's what I want."
No Andy Cox or David Steele in the line-up; who is in your band?
"Ben Barson on guitar. Fred Reynolds on bass. He used to be in a band with me in Hull punk reggae act The Akrylykz. Dave Hatte on drums. He's from York. Steve Corley, keyboards. Debbie Longworth and Julie Isaac, backing singers. They were in The Mint Juleps and they used to tour with the Fine Young Cannibals."
You mention Fred Reynolds being in a band with you in Hull. Didn't The Akrylykz sign to the York label Red Rhino?
"I would have been 17 at the time. I'm 43 now. I remember the recording session for the single. It was bang, bang, bang. The guy from the record company sat at the back nodding his head, and I think he took a producer's credit!
When they signed us, they gave us a crate of beer. Very generous!"
Roland Gift and The Fine Young Cannibals, Grand Opera House, York, Tuesday, 7.30pm. Tickets: £16.50, £14.50, on 0870 606 3595.
Updated: 08:46 Friday, June 04, 2004
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